Tea is for Tiger |
Tea, tea glorious tea! When hot water hits the leaves of the tea plant, an alchemical reaction takes place producing an invigorating and refreshing cupful of pure bliss.
Originating in the East, for thousands of years tea was a bitter medicinal draft. Finally, in the 17th century tea came of age with the historic addition of milk and sugar. This match-made-in-heaven oiled the wheels of the British Empire and it developed more than just a passing fancy for the beverage, swilling down its heavenly hot-and-wetness by the drum-load.
Tea has weathered many a storm since (not least the controversial debut of artificial sweetener in 1917) in 2003 the Royal Society of Chemistry claimed to have scientifically proven that a ‘milk first’ cup of Assam made the superior brew. Rioting in the streets was only avoided because the 4:00pm announcement coincided with the afternoon tea break.
The perfect cup is still hotly debated today and tea continues to fuel innovation here at Oxford University Press. This January is Hot Tea month, so be prepared to defend your choice of brew!
“My collection of fruity and flavoured teas for when I need warming up on a cold grey day.”
– Hannah Charters, Associate Online Product Marketing Manager
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“Say TEAs! Ladies of OUP Cary chat about the season premiere of Downton Abbey over a cup of tea in their matching mugs. Molly, Abigail, and Courtney enjoy peppermint.”
– Megan McPherson and Molly Hansen, Institutional Marketing; Courtney Flaherty, Creative Services
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“I’m drinking Twining’s green tea. I usually go for coffee in the mornings, but decaf tea is perfect for the afternoon.”
– Mackenzie Warren, Marketing Associate
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“I tend to go for an afternoon redbush tea from my super-manly Jemima Puddleduck mug. Props from the OUP Christmas Show in the background create a somewhat eerie backdrop to my tea-drinking experience.”
– Dan Parker, Social Media Marketing Executive
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“Although I usually alternate between coffee and tea throughout the day, I must admit I’ve been leaning a bit more towards tea since I picked up this ‘mana-tea’ strainer. Whether it’s chai, black tea with lemon, earl grey, or green tea, whatever I’m drinking magically becomes cuter when I’m sipping it alongside an adorable marine mammal!”
– Carrie Napolitano, Marketing Associate, Academic/Trade Marketing
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“365 mornings a year, I order a Grande Chai Tea Latte from Starbucks. I’ve been going to the same Starbucks during the work week for some time now and my favorite baristas, Frank and Denize, are the best and usually have my order ready for me when I get to the counter. On the weekends, my home Starbucks also knows me and my love of chai tea. I’ve never had a cup of coffee in my life but I need caffeine so green tea does the trick. I usually drink an afternoon cup and choose from my ever-growing tea shelf in my office. Bigelow Green Tea with pomegranate is my favorite for the afternoon.”
– Michelle Kelly, Marketing Manager
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“I start the day with fresh, loose, English breakfast tea from a specialty shop. My mid-morning second cup is Barry’s Tea from Ireland. My afternoon cup is usually run-of-the mill Lipton tea – not sure why I bother – it’s pretty bad.”
– Greg Bussy, Marketing Director
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“Simon Jared is drinking a lovely cup of earl grey in the picture above. He likes strong tea in the morning so has it black (often the cause of controversy during tea breaks). Miranda Dobson is drinking oolong tea, which is known for improving mental alertness.”
– Simon Jared, Marketing Executive for Commercial Law, and Miranda Dobson, Marketing Assistant for Commercial Law
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What’s your favourite type of tea? Let us know in the comments below.
Headline image credit: Tea in different grade of fermentation, by Haneburger. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
The post Our favourite brews for Hot Tea Month appeared first on OUPblog.
Remember the exciting news I've been holding onto these past few months? Well, it's all happening now: I've moved from France to the English countryside. Why? I'm going back to school! To be precise, I'm going to attend, for the first time ever, art college. There's a ton of reasons for my doing so, and I'll chat about them as we go along to classes together this year, but it's a huge step for me and wonderfully exciting. I'm looking forward to learning tons, and to adding depth to my work and my life. It's never too late.
Which is why everything has been slightly haywire, upside-down, inside-out and choatic lately, and I have to apologise again for the lack of updates here, but you'll have to admit that it's for a brilliant reason and that you can't help but feel happy for me ...
I did manage to find time here and there to tackle a few more Spoonflower daily drawing challenges, though I was left far behind during the packing and moving bit of my journey. I'm still going to carry on and complete their themes despite the fact that the spoonchallenge is officially over today. Still, it keeps me therapeutically content having my pencils, pens, and trusty moleskine journal in hand.
Here are another 5 of the Spoonchallenges:
#SpoonChallenge 6: LEMON
#SpoonChallenge 7: BOOK
#SpoonChallenge 8: ARROW
#SpoonChallenge 9: TEA
#SpoonChallenge 10: TOAST
I have a ton of mundane practical things to take care of before courses begin mid-September, but today is Sunday and it's lovely and sunny here in the English countryside, something not to be taken too much for granted. So I'm having a short but, I think, well-deserved break with tea and the papers in the garden of wonderfully welcoming friends where I'm staying for the moment. Join me ...
Wishing everyone a glorious week. Will update again very soon! Cheers.
Yes, I'm in London. Which is wonderful, especially as I'm with family, about to go on an amazing trip to celebrate my dad's 80th birthday ... yet a wee bit frustrating as well, as I'm missing two whole weeks of the e-course that I've been so thoroughly enjoying ... But yes, I am definitely counting my blessings.
I did manage to take some time off and doodle. We're having a few internet connectivity problems so I'll keep this short and sweet, and post it before I get cut off. Here's the black and white sketch:
I'm not sure if I'll be able to carry on blogging much till I get back home, but I'll be posting photos and updates over at the Floating Lemons Facebook page so pop by there if you'd like to accompany me to Istanbul ...
Have a wonderful day. Cheers.
My new 'favorite' show is Downton Abbey. I've met someone who has the same obsession and hosted a tea party using the show as her theme. I love it! http://pinterest.com/pin/223209725253911377/
Maggie and Buttercup were wild about tea.
The word of the week, over there at Illustration Friday is “wild,” but all I could scare up was this docile boar, so he’ll just have to do.
Tea is high on my list of things that are comforting. It is good whether one is celebrating something or seeking consolation, whether one is well or ill, whether it's a good day or a bad one. In fact, although I am not usually good at picking favorites in any category, next to a hug from my sweetheart, tea is the most comforting thing I can think of in this world.
It's small wonder that it has its own rituals in various countries of the world. And there's something very calming about the process of making tea, really. You have to put the kettle on to boil, then pour the water over the tea leaves (whether they are loose or in a bag, this part of the process is the same), and then you must exert a bit of patience and wait for the tea to steep the appropriate amount of time.
I know people who are extraordinarily anal and precise about the water temperature and the amount of time a particular type of tea must steep. (No lie - I know someone who sets timers for the tea, and the amount of time depends on the particular brand or type of tea in the cup. Assam tea is brewed for a different amount of time than, say, Earl Grey at her house.)
I am nowhere near as fussy as all that. I pour the water over the tea (usually a bag) and let it steep until it's what I consider about the right color, really. These days I've been drinking lots of Tetley, with honey and lemon added. But I have an entire cabinet shelf full of teas and tisanes, and sometimes I drink the other sorts. Some of them I like with sugar and milk, others with nothing at all. The one thing they have in common, besides being hot, is that they are all a source of comfort.
Here. Have a seat. Join me for a cup of tea.
With the start of the new year, we are all turning over new leaves. But are you turning over a new tea leaf?
Is your tea flavorless? Insipid? Bitter? Ordinary? Or worse… Cheesy? Here, just in time, come the six golden tips for making the perfect cup of tea. Think you know all about everything already? Did you know this golden rule: never, ever EVER store tea near cheese.Neither did I.Follow these tea tips and then your year will be off to a good start!You're welcome.
SLJ.
Last Saturday we held our monthly meeting of the Sketchcrawl North group. Well, actually Lynne held it at her house. To keep out of the Sheffield cold and rain we had a sketching tea party. A Mad Hatter's Sketching Tea Party to be precise. There were a few rules. Everyone was to
a) wear a hat
b) bring some interesting crockery
c) make some food for the party.
A great effort was made by everyone. Specifically Lynne's husband, John, who kept us in cups of tea all day. The biscuits below were made by our newest member of the group, 9 year old Josh.
I went the French route with my hat, and took my spotty and stripey tea pots. For food, well, I focused on the word 'Mad'. So, if you'd like my recipes for Eyeball Chutney and Allotment Antipasto I'll be sharing them in my next post.
For now, go check out Lynne's fabulous drawings and photos of this magical day HERE. Can you spot my spotty tea pot? It's never looked so good.
It’s tea now. Once again I have little to add to what anyone can find in the OED and other easily available sources, though it will be a pleasure to continue singing praises to Hobson Jobson, and there is a redeeming quality to this post: at the end I’ll say something about tea caddy. But first here are three quotations. “That excellent and by all physicians approved China drink called by the Chineans Tcha, and by other nations tay, alias tee, is sold at the Sultana Head Coffee House, London.” (Mercurius Politicus, Sept. 30, 1658; The Century Dictionary). “I remember well how in 1681 I for the first time in my life drank thee at the house of an Indian chaplain, and how I could not understand how sensible men could think it a treat to drink what tasted no better than hay-water” (1726), and finally, “There is among our people, and particularly among the womankind a great abuse of Thee, not only that too much is drunk…but this is also an evil custom to drink it with a full stomach; it is better and more wholesome to make use of it when the process of digestion is pretty well finished…. It is also a great folly to use sugar candy with Thee” (1672; the last two quotations are from Hobson Jobson). In 1545 Chiai was said “to remove fever, headache, stomach-ache, pain in the side or joints,” and many other ailments, including gout. I remember reading similar nineteenth-century ads, except that they recommended cigars for alleviating pain and clearing the lungs.
It will be seen that the main question about tea is the same as about coffee, namely: How did the form tea conquer its numerous rivals? And the rivals were indeed many, though they can be divided into two groups: those beginning with ch- and sounding cha, chai, and the like, and those beginning with t- and spelled tee, tea, thee, etc. Both variants are still known in the European languages: for example, English has tea (like Malay te), while Russian has chai (like Chinese Mandarin chha, according to one system of transliteration), homophonous with the first syllable of the word China. In this case, the Malay may have been an intermediary between China and the rest of the world, but the word’s source is Chinese, for, as Hobson Jobson explains, “te [is] the utterance attached to the character in the Fuh-kien dialect.” Knowing nothing about Chinese, I can only repeat what specialists say, and they seem to be unanimous in explaining the origin of the two variants.
The numerous forms of coffee (see them in the post for November 23) show that there was no progression in the development of the English name of this beverage. We only witnessed different episodes in the history of its adaptation—a usual process in the fortunes of exotic articles of trade, plant and animal names, and so forth. The same holds for tea. Different forms coexisted, were affected by the pronunciation and spelling of the word in other languages (in English, Dutch and French influence has to be reckoned with), and at long last one such form became standard. The state of “peaceful coexistence” is testified to by the first of the three quotations given at the beginning of this post and by an almost identical ad in The Gazette, which, also in 1658, advertised a China drink, “called by the Chinese Toha, by other nations Tay, alias Tee.” Apparently, the norm had not yet solidified. In 1711 Alexander Pope rhymed tea with obey. In 1720 the rhyme tea / pay occurred. In 1770 Samuel Johnson extemporized the verses in which tea was coupled in rhyme with me
Cuddle up with your favorite pot of tea, bake a batch of scones and prepare to settle in for a page turner where strong women, strong southern friendships and strong tea are steeped in mystery!
Artwork & Design, Susi Galloway |
Melanie O'Hara - Salyers |
The way you wear your hat,
The way you sip your tea
-Cole Porter
i LOVE this piece and am enjoying EVERY second of painting it!:) ok...so as well all know, i am the world's worst photographer;) took this pic with my phone really quick so the colors are a bit "off". but, i'm getting there...:) can't wait to finish it!!!
ok...this could be one of my new favorites:) this is a sketch for a comissioned piece for the cousin of the little girl's room i just finished up last week-isabelle.
http://theenchantedeasel.blogspot.com/2011/02/isabelles-roomall-done.html
thank so much to liz for asking me to now adorn her niece's room with my work. i am beyond excited to do another piece for this wonderful family!:)
*a few background notes about this piece-mailee loves loves loves cows! her room is pink and brown AND they used to live in washington d.c.*
so i couldn't resist the cherry blossom trees (which are my favorite) and a sweet little pink and brown stuffed cow. besides, what little girl doesn't absolutely love to have tea parties with her stuffed animals/dolls?! i am super excited to start painting this in the next couple of days...:)
What with the dropping temperatures and snow I’ve been drinking a lot of hot tea. There is plenty of rooibos tea here in Germany, and in fact they have a blend of rooibos and caramel that is awesome (can you get that in the U.S.?). But I haven’t found any rooibos chai, which I’ve been craving. I’ve made my own blend before, but I lost that recipe, so this time I tried this one, with modifications.
Obviously, I used rooibos rather than black tea, but I upped the dosage to 2-3 TB to make it stronger, since rooibos can be a little weak. I also added some black cardamom (and when making the second batch had no green cardamom left) and subbed fresh nutmeg for the allspice. I had no anise, so I left that out. I used fresh orange peel rather than dried. It turned out really well. I didn’t realize that the ginger is what gives it such a nice bite, so if you want spice, use plenty of it. I used fresh ginger, but I’ll have to make a big batch of a dried version recipe so I can have the tea whenever I like.
Let me know if you see a rooibos caramel blend in the U.S. so I’ll know if I need to stockpile it before we leave Germany.
Today, all over the book blog world, blog readers can indulge in reading about the people who write the blogs they love, and discover new ones that they might want to add to their list.
I was paired up with Lyndsey who writes amused, bemused and confused. Her website is: www.teadevotee.com.
Here's what Lyndsey wrote about herself: "28, living in London writing by day, reading by night. When they make a film of my life, Tina Fey will play me. We have the same taste in glasses.When I grow up, I want to be a biographer. Until then, I mostly write about books and reading; but also sometimes films, the general madness of London life and…well…writing."
I encourage you to pay her a virtual visit. She has a wonderful sense of humor, and a picky snobbery for tea!
And if you're curious what questions she asked me in exchange, please go to her site today.
1. What was the moment when you decided, "I must write a blog!"
I had a few of these! I'm a speechwriter so I spend my days thinking and writing like other people; but I constantly itch to write my own things too and decided a blog would be a good outlet. I had a practice run by writing a blog about my progress while training for a race. Then I started up teadevotee.com, which was more or less an online journal splurghing out my random thoughts for about a year before I decided to concentrate on books.
2. How did you define what your blog's focus would be?
Oddly enough, it was some feedback from the very nice people at wordpress that I got a lot of traffic when I wrote about books. So it was a case of giving the punters what they want!
3. Did you design your own blog look, or have someone do it for you?
It's just a basic wordpress theme. This is actually something I want to work on over the next few months. Apple was handing out free training like sweeties for people buying new computers, so I'm going to be taking them up on that and doing some crazy design work. Alternatively, if anyone wants to do it for me, I'd love to hear from you. I'll write you some speeches in return...or maybe make you a cake?
4. What are you hoping to achieve with your blog?
Actually, my blog is one part of my life where I feel like I don't have to "achieve" anything. I just like to write and please myself, and hopefully please some other people too! It's more a chance to stretch my writing muscles, ramble on a bit and meet some nice like-minded people.
5. Are you out to make tea drinkers out of readers?
Sure. In fact, I'd like to start my own cult of tea-devotees.
6. What do you think of coffee drinkers?
They don't know what they're missing. I only like coffee in cake.
7. What's your favorite thing to be doing while sipping tea?
Reading in bed.
8. Like pairing wine with cheese, what book would you pair with tea and which flavor?
Any book tastes better with tea. Though there is only one flavour. I can't be doing with these fancy-schmancy herbal teas. They aren't tea, they are just hot, coloured water.
9. Who likes cookbooks more, you or your husband?
I would say about even. Favourites include Nigella Lawson's Express, the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, Rachel Allen's Home Cooking. And we've just bought Plenty, by Ottolenghi - yum veg
Cute boar. He he he
Thanks Madre! (0:
This child adores your balancing boar.
Aww, thanks Julie!
Love this! So clever!!
That big boar has a wee butt on a wee chair.
This is soooo cute.
Great drawings!!
‘He’ll just have to do’? I think it’s brilliant, a docile boar that’s all about tea. Wonderful illustration!
So cute! Great work!
Wonderful drawing!!
This is great! Love the composition and the balancing bulky boar!!
That’s some wild tea party…love it! Can’t wait to look through your portfolio. I ended up going with Animals gone wild…http://www.bitsnbaublesstudio.com/apps/blog